Tuesday, 28 March 2017

Being in a town with barely any water; black-headed, herring and lesser black-backed gulls are the only regular gull species, despite various others occurring nearby at Sutton Bingham.

Looking out of the window this evening I saw two larids flying north, but one was tiny! I rushed to the back of the house with my bins and sure enough it was a 2nd winter Common Gull! A species I've been waiting ages to see in Yeovil! Really pleased to have finally connected with this gull on patch.

Sunday, 26 March 2017

Was in Hampshire/Wiltshire yesterday when news broke of an iberian chiff at Yate in Glouc, a species I've been keen to connect with after not being able to go for multiple birds last year. On the drive over, I had 3 Red Kites, 2 near Thruxton and another somewhere in Wiltshire.

I arrived just after 3pm. There were several chiffchaffs moving about including one striking individual, showing bright yellow and white to the underparts. Sadly, I didn't see it again in the next few hours, neither did I hear any song.

Woke up this morning and saw it was still present, so made another trip up. Arrived at about 11:15, and I could immediately hear the bird singing. After a short while, I managed to get onto the IBERIAN CHIFFCHAFF through the thick vegetation, and in the next hour we had good, if a bit obscured, views of the bird singing. It certainly seems that a morning visit gives the best chance with this bird.

Tuesday, 14 March 2017

Headed down to Tatton, Dorset with Lewis this afternoon to try and catch up with a cattle egret. No luck, but we had 2 Red Kites from the car window. Moved to Portesham to continue the search where we eventually picked out a single Cattle Egret.

Cattle Egret - Portesham

Headed to Abbotsbury but dipped on the garganey, however did have a good selection of wildfowl including 5 fine Long-Tailed Ducks.

About Me

I’m a South Somerset based birder. I started birding in 2007 but only discovered twitching in 2013. Now I mostly twitch rarities but am a casual Yeovil Lister as well and concentrate on my local patch; Yeovil Openspace. I try to take record shots of all the decent species I see, and occasionally get decent photos too!